The evening got underway with some bright, consummately French dances by Lully. All were presented with perfection, with some wonderfully delicate sounds from the 20-piece OSL, a modern instrument group playing with an elegance and flair that conveyed the music’s pomp and refinement.
Next came a Violin Concerto by Jean-Marie LeClair. The various instruments, including lute and harpsichord, blended well, both among themselves and with de Swarte. His supple and sensitive playing (on a 1733 Bergonzi) was superbly expressive in the central Largo, but it was his virtuosic delivery of the theatrical Finale that most impressed.
Dating from 1715, Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les caractères de la danse is a concise but charming collection of dances that flow seamlessly from one into another. The printed score includes oboes and bassoon, but this performance utilized only flutes, strings and percussion. De Swarte and the OSL delivered a first-rate rendition of the fourteen brief movements, effectively depicting the music’s varying moods – alternately tender, sensual or flamboyantly dramatic.
The second half opened with a brief Fantasia by British composer Nicola Matteis II (son of Nicolas Matteis, the earliest Italian violinist in London). It unfolds with a blast of bariolage bowing superbly executed de Swarte as he entered from the wings and moved to the front of the stage, an overly theatrical gesture. The OSL joined in as he segued into a splendidly played transcription of ‘Auf meinen lieben Gott’ from a Bach cantata. Next, his A-minor Violin Concerto. A fugal-style opening shifted into a more lyrical Andante, the soloist spinning a delicate melody over a bass ostinato. Finally, a bouncy gigue that became increasingly virtuosic. The printed program concluded with two of Bach’s most recognizable melodies, a heavenly rendition of the Air, and an exceptionally fleet and fluttering account of the Badinerie, de Swarte taking the solo lead, a part originally scored for flute. Two encores: the Largo from Bach’s Violin Concerto in G-minor BWV1056R, and the Allegro assai from Francesco Maria Veracini’s Sonata in A, Op.1/7.
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